The Statue of Liberty: A Buried Legacy

PAPER
THE STATUE
OF LIBERTY:
A Buried Legacy
by Emma Gray, SY ‘21
Written for “The 1701 Project”
Advised by Professor David Blight
Edited by Esther Reichek
1YALE HISTORICAL REVIEW
N 1871, architect Frédéric Auguste Bar-
tholdi arrived in New York with a project
in mind, a project so ambitious that he
wrote to his mother that she should not share it lest he
“would appear eccentric, even a little crazy.”1 When
he went on to begin this project, reporters described
it as, “a huge sham-sentimental melodramatic image
of bronze” and one “that will merely illustrate its own
absurdity.”2 The New York Times told New Yorkers to
ignore the project, countless newspaper cartoons sati-
rized its slow progress, and both the State and Federal
Government rejected Bartholdi’s requests for funding.3
After the work’s completion, Bartholdi himself wrote
that it “cannot be considered as a very great work of
art.”4 He had originally intended to fulfill the vision of
Édouard René de Laboulaye, the project’s commissio-
ner.
Laboulaye wanted to build a colossal monument
that celebrated the emancipation of formerly enslaved
African Americans in the United States.5 As the head
of the French Anti-Slavery Society, he conceived of the
idea in 1865 as a way to celebrate America’s new “civil
liberty.”6 Bartholdi and Laboulaye titled their aspiratio-
nal and ambitious project the Statue of Liberty.
Almost 150 years later, over 4.5 million people
now visit the Statue of Liberty annually and no image
in America is more widely recognized.7,8 This former-
ly belittled Statue has appeared on every imaginable
form of popular media, from the title sequence of
The Sopranos to advertisements for Liberty Mutual
Insurance. And yet, the Statue depicted on October
18th, 1884 in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper looks
dramatically different than the upright, proud lady in
Liberty Mutual’s logo.9
In the 1884 depiction, the Statue many Americans
now know and love is far from the “mighty woman
with a torch,” that Emma Lazarus describes in her
poem “The New Colossus.”10 Her skin looks wrin-
kled, her hair dangles out of her crown, and her back
hunches over. She uses the torch of liberty as a crutch,
I

Left, “Liberty Mutual,” First Financial Federal Credit Union, Accessed March 20, 2020; Right, “The Statue
of Liberty in New York,” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, October 18, 1884.
supporting her weight on its flame. With her free hand,
she weakly holds out a box for donations that is inscri-
bed with the words: “For something to stand on.” The
meaning of this phrase can be interpreted in two ways.
When Bartholdi and Laboulaye first pitched their idea
to their American supporters, the Americans agreed
that if the French funded the construction of the statue,
Americans would pay for its pedestal and foundation.11
By 1884, twenty years had passed since the inception
of Bartholdi and Laboulaye’s vision, and the American
Committee of the Statue of Liberty, tasked with raising
money for the pedestal, had failed to raise the necessary
funds.12 Thus, Americans quite literally needed to soli-
cit money so that the Statue, which Bartholdi comple-
ted by 1884, had a pedestal to stand on.
Americans expressed growing concern that they
would humiliate themselves by having to reject the
French gift for lack of funds. It became clear to those in
charge that in order to raise funds, they had to convince
Americans that the project and the ideas it stood for
deserved their well-earned dollars. The project thus
also needed a popular, ideological platform to stand on,
an ideal that all could agree on. Though Laboulaye and
Bartholdi originally wanted that ideal to be emancipa-
tion, Americans could not come together to celebrate
equal rights for African Americans by the 1880’s. By
this time, Reconstruction had ended and the Republi-
can agenda had shifted away from the rhetoric of pro-
tecting freed Black men. Thus, the Statue of Liberty, as
depicted in 1884, sacrifices her flame of liberty, extin-
guishing it in an attempt to get her balance. She holds
out her hand for money using whatever platform she
thinks will appeal to the American people. This cartoon
serves as a reminder that the meaning of the Statue shif-
ted over time, from a commemoration of emancipation,
to a glorification of the American Revolution, to a sym-
bol of reconciliation, and ultimately to a celebration of
immigration, in order to appeal to the US citizen and
his checkbook.
Although no longer evident, Laboulaye and Bar-
tholdi originally designed the Statue of Liberty as an
ode to emancipation and to the Union’s victory. Though
French, the “undisputed father of the statue,” Labou-
laye, had always been an admirer and a close observer
of all things American.13,14
In fact, he wrote a three volume history of the United
States before ever visiting.15,16 In 1865, for example, he
published the Political History of the United States, from
1620-1789 and wrote an analysis of President James
Buchanan’s message on Bleeding Kansas.17,18 The ser-
mons of Reverend Ellergy Channing greatly shaped this
French man’s views on America and American slavery.
2 THE STATUE OF LIBERTY

Channing, a Unitarian minister from Boston, wrote and
preached about man’s divine nature and the necessity
of emancipating all enslaved men.19 Laboulaye thereaf-
ter believed in a personal God who liberated all men.
Religion informed his abolitionist views and he greatly
admired artistic depictions of Christ freeing slaves from
their chains, such as Ary Scheffer’s Christ the Consoler.20
Channing’s writings, as well as encounters with Gaspa-
rin Martin and other abolitionists, inspired Laboulaye’s
vehement hatred of American slavery.21
Laboulaye did not keep his views about emancipa-
tion to himself. After the outbreak of the Civil War, he
became deeply concerned with the war’s outcome and
did everything in his power to support the Union.22 He
used his position as a teacher at the Collège de France
to give radical, pro-Union lectures in 1863. He asked
his students, “Why is it that this friendship has eroded?
Why is it that the face of America is not so dear to us as
it was in those days?” and answered, “It is due to slave-
ry; we had always hoped that something would be done
to put an end to an institution which was regarded by
the founders of the Constitution as fraught with peril to
the country; but instead of this, the partisans of slavery,
having obtained the ascendant, have continually been
engaged in efforts to perpetuate it and extend its limits,
so that we have ceased to feel the same interest in Ame-
ricans.”23 Laboulaye subtly threatened Americans by
insinuating that they would lose French support and
camaraderie if they did not abolish slavery.
In the same year, Laboulaye wrote the article which
would make a name for him in America. In it, he descri-
bed how he had “been watching with interest the course
of this country in its more important tendencies, and
particularly as related to slavery.”24 He went on to com-
pare the suffering that the Civil War brought on Ameri-
cans to the cotton famine in Europe in order to appeal
to the French and gain their sympathy. He argued that
Europeans should not intervene, especially not on the
Christ the Consoler by Ary Scheffer. “Christ the Consoler,” Oil Paintings Gallery, accessed April 16, 2020.

side of the Confederacy. Rather, he suggested that Eu-
ropeans could best help by stating their support for the
Union. He explained that, “It is evident that the South
has all the wrong on its side,” because it “breaks the na-
tional unity and tears the country into two parts.”25 He
believed that the South “has no right to the sympathy
of the French nation,” and “As to the canonization of
slavery, that must be left to southern preachers.”26 He
implicated Americans, explaining how “in the full light
of the nineteenth century, [they] audaciously proclaim
their desire to perpetuate and extend slavery.”27 With
this article, he opposed Napoleon III and the majority
of French citizens who sympathized with the Confe-
deracy.28 He definitively proclaimed, “The friends of
liberty had pronounced themselves boldly against the
policy of slavery.” From early on, Laboulaye associated
the word “liberty” with emancipation and fought for
the American slave’s freedom.29
After the publication of this article, Laboulaye
gained a great deal of attention and became even more
active in his support for the Union. He wrote letters to
abolitionists in the United States and created pamphlets
defending the Union cause.30,31 He traveled across
France giving talks on universal education and indivi-
dual emancipation.32 Inspired by Channing, he wanted
to play the part of the Boston reformer in Paris.33 In
1865, he became the head of the French Anti-Slave-
ry society and became a member of the Philadelphia
branch of the Union League Club, a group dedicated
to the new Republican Party and its cause in the Civil
War.34 The Club’s support would become very impor-
tant to him because of their elite status and connec-
tions.35 Laboulaye’s speeches and writing captured the
attention of the French public.36 Auguste Nefftzer, a
French journalist, explained Laboulaye’s popularity,
writing, he “possessed a rare thing in France, the just
and lively intelligence of liberty.”37
John Bigelow, an American statesman and aboli-
tionist from New York, pronounced in 1888 that La-
boulaye’s writings acted as a crucial step in the French
government’s decision not to recognize the Confedera-
cy.38 Bigelow had travelled to France in 1861, where he
had seen that many in Europe had deemed secession
a “holy cause.”39 In his 1888 book, he complained that
Europeans had “too willing ears to” the “delusive tales,”
of the South.40 In Paris, Bigelow read two papers by
Laboulaye which pronounced that the South only wit-
hdrew in order to perpetuate slavery and that they had
no right to separate from the Union.41 When Bigelow
asked to meet Laboulaye, the French man responded
that he would “be happy to serve in any way a cause
which is the cause of liberty and justice.”42 When they
met, Bigelow asked the French man whether he could
reprint his article in English, to which Laboulaye said,
“I am completely at your disposal I shall be charmed
to serve a cause which is the cause of all the friends of
liberty.” Again, Laboulaye defined the fight for emanci-
pation as a fight for “liberty” in this correspondence. Bi-
gelow, reflecting later on Laboulaye’s pamphlets, wrote
that “the effect…was far greater than I had ventured to
anticipate…His pen and his influence were always at
our service…Laboulaye’s value as a friend of the Union,
and of representative government was not long in being
recognized in the United States.”43
Bigelow correctly asserted that Laboulaye made
an impact not only in France but also in America. The
American press translated and reprinted Laboulaye’s
words often and many abolitionist organizations began
to see him as a hero. The Union League Club of New
York ordered his portrait and the Union League Club
in Philadelphia created a bronze bust of him. In fact,
Bigelow recounted that by the end of the war, those in
the US recognized his name more than those in Eu-
rope.44 It is no surprise then that many who ultimately
got involved with the Statue of Liberty served first as
members of these Union League Clubs.45 Laboulaye ra-
dically supported the cause of emancipation and played
a significant role in the Civil War.
Laboulaye conceived of the idea of for the Statue
of Liberty in 1865, the year that the Civil War ended
and that John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lin-
coln. The Union victory reinforced Laboulaye’s politi-
cal position and inspired him to want to commemorate
emancipation. He had begun to praise the prospect of
liberty for slaves in 1864 when he wrote, “Rejuvenated
by victory, refreshed by trials, America will banish
slavery from the world, will set an example still grea-
ter than that war of Independence. Twice will she have
established liberty; political liberty in 1776, civil liberty
in 1864. The world is solidarity and the cause of Ame-
rica is the cause of liberty…America disencumbered
of slavery, will be the country of all ardent spirits, of
all generous hearts.”46 Yet, he never proposed the idea
for the Statue until after the Emancipation Proclama-
tion. He expressed his excitement about the Proclama-
tion in a letter to the United States Secretary of State,

William H. Seward, on January 20th 1866. He wrote
to Seward, “The members of the French Emancipa-
tion Society have received with emotion and sympathy,
the proclamation announcing the abolition of slavery,
which you instructed me to communicate to them…It
transformed our fathering in a measure into a thanks-
giving festival…we beg you to thank the President of
the United States in the name of Committee.”47 After
Congress passed the 13th Amendment, Laboulaye ex-
pressed to his friends at a dinner party that, “If a mo-
nument should rise in the United States as a memorial
to their independence, I should think it only natural if
it were built by united effort.”48 The National Park Ser-
vice’s website put its perfectly when it explains that,
“With the abolition of slavery and the Union’s victory
in the Civil War in 1865, Laboulaye’s wishes of freedom
and democracy were turning into a reality in the United
States. In order to honor these achievements, Labou-
laye proposed that a gift be built for the United States
on behalf of France.”49 Laboulaye continued to support
emancipated African Americans after they had gained
their freedom. He founded a French association for the
relief of the newly emancipated slaves and sent funds to
newly freed slaves.50,51 He also supported Mrs. Lincoln
after she lost her husband. Both he and Bartholdi joined
forty thousand other French citizens in contributing
money toward a gold medal for Mrs. Lincoln. It read,
“Dedicated by French democracy to…honest Lincoln
who abolished slavery, re-established the Union and
saved the Republic, without veiling the statue of liber-
ty.”52 Though they solely meant this phrase, the “statue
of liberty,” metaphorically at the time, it is no surprise
that this would become the title of the monument they
would ultimately build. They chose the word “liberté,”
for the title because it has a very specific connotation.
Liberté refers to personal liberty, rather than political
liberty or liberty from tyranny. Thus, Laboulaye inten-
tionally chose a name that would signal a celebration of
the enslaved man’s liberty, not the liberty of the United
States from Britain’s rule.53
Though Laboulaye wanted to get started imme-
diately on his project, the 1870 outbreak of the Franco
Prussian War interrupted his plan. 77,000 Frenchmen
died in battle in this dramatic stand off against the Ger-
mans.54 The commissioner and his prospective sculp-
tor continued to discuss their ideas for the project
throughout the war. Bartholdi wrote to Laboulaye in
1871 that, “I have spent some time putting my affairs in
order,” and that he looked forward to starting the pro-
ject so that he could “glorify the Republic and Liberty.”55
Later, many would be claim that these men only started
planning the Statue once they had been invited to take
part in the 1876 centennial celebration of America’s Re-
volution but letters like these, some of which date back
to as early as 1867, invalidate that claim. Laboulaye and
Bartholdi would later take part in the Centennial but
the Civil War, not the American Revolution inspired
the creation of the Statue.56,57
Laboulaye encouraged in Bartholdi a strong convic-
tion about emancipation. Thus, when Bartholdi first
began to design Laboulaye’s commission, he drew his
vision from much more violent representations of the
fight for freedom.58 He found inspiration in prior per-
sonifications of liberty such as Eugène Delacroix’s Li-
berty Leading the People (1830).59 Delacroix paints Lady
Liberty as a revolutionary figure, holding up the flag of
the French Revolution and leading the way for armed,
angry men. Bartholdi followed Delacroix’s lead in crea-
ting an imagined woman to represent liberty instead of
creating a portrait of a specific individual.
Another of his inspirations included Ludwig Mi-
chael von Schwanthaler’s Bavaria (1848), in which the
female personification of the Bavarian homeland holds
a sword and raises up a crown.60 Both Bavaria and the
Statue of Liberty wear classically draped gowns and
have one arm outstretched. He also seemed to have Au-
Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix.
Alicja Zelazko, “Liberty Leading the People,”
Britannica, May 3, 2018

gustine Dumont’s The Spirit of Freedom on his mind,
a statue of Hermes meant to celebrate the 1789 and
1830 revolutions and the location at which many later
protests took place.61 Hermes raises a torch in his right
hand and broken chains in his left hand.62 The histo-
rian Francesca Lidia Viano notes that while Hermes is a
naked male with feminine features, the Statue of Liber-
ty has been described as a feminine body with male fea-
tures.63 The similarities between Bartholdi’s Statue and
these older designs emphasizes the revolutionary mea-
ning the Statue originally had.Bartholdi and Laboulaye
originally tried to use their monument to celebrate the
way in which enslaved African Americans threw off
their chains to join the Union’s fight.
In Bartholdi’s original vision for the Statue of Li-
berty, Lady Liberty herself more explicitly represented
emancipation. Like Dumont’s Hermes, she held broken
shackles in her hands and trampled the chains by her
feet.64 Early miniature prototypes of the statue on dis-
play at the Museum of the City of New York dated from
1870 showed Liberty’s left arm extended and broken
shackles hanging from her wrist.65,66 Yet, as Bartholdi
began showing his miniature to others and receiving
feedback, he realized that he had to create a less threate-
ning image. He turned the Statue’s flaming torch into a
peaceful beacon of light and swapped the chains lady
liberty held out for a book inscribed with 1776 on the
cover.67 The Statue of Liberty we see today no longer
reflects Laboulaye and Bartholdi’s original intentions.68
Left: Bavaria
by Ludwig
Schwanthaler.
Berenson,
The Statue of
Liberty, 19;
Right: The Spirit
of Freedom
by Augstin
Dumont.
Banerjee,
“The Spirit of
Freedom.”
Early prototype of the Statue of Liberty. Turley,
“Myths Surrounding the Origin of the Statue of
Liberty.”

Bartholdi’s ultimate creation still retains some hints
of Lady Liberty’s original interpretation. He based the
Statue on the roman goddess Libertas, usually depicted
wearing a Phrygian cap worn by freed Roman slaves.69
Further, although she now holds a tame torch, the Sta-
tue of Liberty still thrusts her arm in the air, in a manner
reminiscent to Delacroix’s imagined Lady Liberty. In
fact, in Franz Kafka’s Amerika, Karl Rossman mistakes
the Statue of Liberty’s torch for a sword.70 The chains
by the Statue of Liberty’s feet serve as the only explicit
reminder of the Statue’s original meaning. Though the
representation of someone becoming unchained has
acted as a symbol for emancipation since ancient times,
these chains are nearly invisible beneath her drapery to-
day.71,72,73 The location chosen for the statue itself hints
at its significance. Bedloe’s Island, now known as Liber-
ty Island, served as an ammunition depot and recrui-
ting station for the Union army during the Civil War.74
Bartholdi, limited by the need for funds, still found
ways to embed the Statue of Liberty with revolutionary
meaning.75
Bartholdi and Laboulaye attempted to commemo-
rate the Union victory in a nation that still struggled
with how best to remember the Civil War. Americans
began shaping the memory of the Civil War before it
had even finished.76 Those who watched countless lo-
ved ones die, wanted to believe that they had sacrificed
their lives for a reason. Writers like Frederick Douglass
and Walt Whitman spent countless pages trying to
make sense of the bloodshed. As early as the Gettysburg
address, President Abraham Lincoln urged Americans
to make sure men did not die in vain and told them
to fuel a new nation using the “wreckage of the war.”77
African Americans hoped that Union victory, no matter
how much it cost, would mean equality for them at last.
These hopes for equality, however, would not come to
fruition by the end of the Reconstruction period (1865-
1877). By 1870, all of the ex-Confederate states had re-
joined the Union and by the compromise of 1877, the
North had given up trying to impose equality for black
Americans. Democrats allowed Rutherford B. Hayes to
win the Presidency and in return Republicans withdrew
all federal troops from the South, leaving the Southern
states to disenfranchise and discriminate against Afri-
can Americans.
This post-Reconstruction period held very different
meanings for black and white Americans. To African
Americans, it signified a great deal of loss. Southern
issues began to play an increasingly small part in the
politics of Northern Republicans and racist Americans
took advantage of this. By 1876, Martin W. Gary called
on Democrats to control the black vote with intimida-
tion methods in South Carolina.78 In 1883, the Supre-
me Court ruled the Civil Rights Act of 1875, integral to
protecting the rights of African Americans, unconstitu-
tional. As John C. Calhoun proclaimed, the South could
now settle “all questions” regarding African Ameri-
cans.79 Many Americans did not try to remain discrete
about their efforts to disempower African Americans.
One North Carolina Democrat wrote in 1875, “It is
absolutely necessary…that the county funds shall be
placed beyond the reach of the large negro majorities.”
80 One Southern newspaper declared that the 14th and
15th amendments might last but, “we intend…to make
them dead letters on the statute-book.”81 As W.E.B. Du
Bois articulated how after the Civil War, “the slave went
free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back
again toward slavery.”82 In 1897, Frank Barbour Coffin,
a black pharmacist, looked back at what American had
becomeandwrote“TheNegro’sAmerica.”Hedescribed,
“My country, ‘tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, would I
could sing; It land of Pilgrim’s pride also where lynched
men died with such upon her tide, freedom can’t rei-
gn.”83 His sentiments reflected those felt by many in the
late nineteenth century, who deemed concepts like “li-
berty” and “freedom” unattainable fallacies.
White Americans, on the other hand, viewed the
post-Reconstruction period as a time to celebrate the
reconciliation of the nation. In 1876, unprecedented
parades and ceremonies broke out in celebration of the
Civil War and the unity to which it led. On May 30th,
1877, Colonel A.W. Baxter stood up at the decoration
day parade and pronounced that, “over the grave of bu-
ried bygones rejoice, now, as soldiers and citizens, we
know no North, no South, no East, no West – only one
country.”84 He believed that those who went prematu-
rely to their graves had done so as a means of bringing
the nation back together. He did not specify that the
South had fractured that union originally for the pur-
pose of retaining the right to own slaves. Instead of cele-
brating the freedom of formerly enslaved men, Ameri-
cans used decoration day as a time to call for sympathy
for the Confederate veteran and to praise newly found
reunion.85 Speakers described Reconstruction as a of
time great “massacres” and “violations,” villainizing the
radical Republicans who had attempted to create equal

opportunities for African Americans. They did not re-
cognize the “massacres” that black Americans currently
faced in the form of lynching.86 By the time President
Wilson gave a speech to commemorate the Gettysburg
address 50 years after Lincoln’s, the “wreckage of the
war” had certainly not ensured freedom and equality
for African Americans. Southern states had stripped
blacks of suffrage by requiring voters to pass literacy
tests, pay poll taxes, and own property.87 Wilson at-
tempted to preach about sectional reconciliation in
1913, but he spoke to a society rampant with inequality.
It makes sense then that Laboulaye and Bartholdi qui-
ckly abandoned their hope to raise money for a Statue
dedicated to emancipation.88
Bartholdi and Laboulaye realized that raising mo-
ney in America would prove difficult. Bartholdi arrived
in New York in June of 1871, unknown to the Ameri-
can public, and tasked with gaining American support
for his project.89 He spoke little English, knew barely
anything about the United States, and had very few of
his own connections. He started by talking to American
Francophiles like Mary Louise Boothe but they showed
little interest.90 He then traveled across the country
from Boston, to Newport, to Chicago, to the Rockies, to
San Francisco seeking any support he could find.91 He
described his journey as, a “Missionary’s pilgrimage…
In each town I look for some people who might wish
to participate in our enterprise.”92 He did not venture
to the South, clearly aware that an abolitionist message
would not gain traction there. He did however meet
with many abolitionists, such as Charles Sumner.93
Some supported the project and its original intent, such
as Colonel John W Forney, but most did not.94 Barthol-
di wrote to his mother, “Each site presents some dif-
ficulty but the greatest difficulty, I believe, will be the
American character which is hardly open to things of
the imagination.”95
Even four years later, newspaper coverage of the
Statue reveals that Bartholdi continued to struggle to
inspire interest in the project. On September 29th,
1875 the New York Times published an editorial which
said, “it is more than doubtful the American public is
ready to undertake any such task” of funding the Sta-
tue.96 One year later, the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel read,
“The plan, originated in France, to erect on Bedloe’s
Island…a colossal statue of the Goddess of Liberty,
needs to be urged to a certain degree by the people of
the United States.”97 Though reporters would later refer
to the Statue as “colossal” as a source of pride, at first,
the size of the project seemed untenable and overly am-
bitious. Americans wanted a more modest statue and
did not want to pay for a pedestal that cost as much as
the Statue itself.98 Bartholdi and Laboulaye accepted the
Milwaukee paper’s advice and realized that they needed
“Colossal Hand and Torch,” at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, 1876. Megan Margino, “The Arm
that Clutched the Torch: The Statue of Liberty’s Campaign for a Pedestal,” New York Public Library, April 7,
2015.

to convince the American people to support this statue
if they hoped for funding.
Laboulaye had long entertained the idea of shaping
the Statue’s meaning around what the American public
wanted to hear. Even before Bartholdi left, Laboulaye
wrote to him, “If you find a happy idea, a plan that will
excite public enthusiasm, we are convinced that it will
be successful.”99 Half of the nation still did not think
of the Union victory as a “happy idea.” Thus, when
Bartholdi and Laboulaye received an invitation to join
the Centennial celebration, they seized the chance to
“excite” Americans. In order to fit into the one-hun-
dred-year anniversary of the American Revolution, the
sculptor and commissioner pushed aside the divisive
memory that led to the Statue’s creation and rethought
the Statue’s backstory and meaning. A year after work
formally began, the completed torch and left forearm of
Lady Liberty, along with a new rendering of the Statue’s
significance, went on display in Philadelphia and New
York.100
The Centennial exhibition marked the great tech-
nological “progress” of the age.101 Over one fifth of the
US population attended this celebration, where every-
thing from Siamese ivory to a replica of Cleopatra went
on display.102 This moment of self-congratulation came
at a time in which great turbulence rocked the nation.
An economic depression had left millions of workers
unemployed and had inspired a great number of strikes
including the Long Strike of 1875. The Centennial also
took place during a continuing period of discrimina-
tion towards African Americans, who could not work
for the segregated construction crews that built the ex-
hibition halls. Grant had started to pull back on what
he called the “ultra-measures relating to the South,” by
that point, meaning he stopped enforcing Reconstruc-
tion protections.
Republicans had “abandoned” African Americans
“to the tender mercies of the Ku Klux Klan.”103 The ex-
hibition, which had no recognition of the working-class
strikes, the violent overthrow of Mississippi Recons-
truction, or the scandals engulfing President Grant’s ad-
ministration, was no place for a Statue commemorating
emancipation.104
After Bartholdi displayed the Statue at the Centen-
nial, many believed it had been intended to celebrate
the anniversary of America’s freedom from Britain. By
1876, the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel stated the French
built the Statue once they “learned of the approach of
our Centennial year, and remembering the part of their
country in our revolution they were moved to take
part in our festival,” a faulty idea that many would la-
ter echo.105 In 1881, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat wrote
that from the beginning the Statue “was meant to be
shown during the Centennial year to honor the revolu-
tionary struggle.” The American Committee itself had
a hand in ensuring that the Centennial interpretation
persisted. The American Committee for the Statue of
Liberty, born in 1881, came about as a means of raising
funds for the pedestal.
According to the Boston Daily Advertiser, the Com-
mittee gave a speech in 1881 to raise money in which
they claimed that the project had always been meant
to “commemorate the hundredth university of our na-
tional independence.”106 One year later, the Daily Eve-
ning Bulletin recorded that Mr. Evarts, the committee
leader, claimed that, “The idea of making this gift was
conceived in 1875, as we were approaching the Centen-
nial celebration of the Declaration of Independence,” af-
ter which he asked for great sums of money.107 In 1883,
another Committee member, Richard Butler, said that
the Statue “was given by the people of the French Repu-
blic to the people of the United States as…an expression
of the sympathy of France in the Centennial Anniver-
sary of American Independence.” Those raising money
for the project took advantage of the Centennial and
purposefully reshaped the Statue’s significance.108,109
The Centennial and the press coverage afterward
still did not bring in nearly enough funds. Some thought
that America would ultimately only receive Lady Liber-
ty’s arm, which had gone on display.110 Evarts wrote to
Laboulaye in 1881 saying, “I assure you, my dear M.
de Laboulaye, that we have no doubt that our compa-
triots will joyfully furnish the money for the pedestal,”
but by 1882 he did not seem as sure.111 That year, the
Daily Evening Bulletin wrote of the “ridicule” that the
undertaking faced and the money that trickled in rather
slowly.112 The Committee tried inviting citizens, cham-
bers of Commerce, Boards of Trade, Mechanics’ Asso-
ciations, and Voluntary organizations to take part in
what they called their “grand, patriotic enterprise,” but
to no avail.113 Though Committee members kept reas-
suring Laboulaye that “American people will be only
too eager” to donate, the citizens proved them wrong.
By 1883, Americans had only raised $85,000 and
desperation started to set in.114 The Committee placed
“Liberty boxes” across the city that resembled poor

boxes, but even this effort only collected $2,355.115 In-
terest from newspapers began to dry up. On November
20th, 1883 The Arkansas Gazette included one sentence
on the needed subscriptions sandwiched between two
much longer articles about local murder cases.116 Some
newspapers started to include information about the
Statue in the “Foreign” section, distancing themselves
from the project.117 This year also served as a tragic one,
as Laboulaye died on May 25th. He would never get to
see the completed statue and he would certainly never
get to ensure that people knew its original meaning. Af-
ter his death, efforts to raise money only became more
fraught. In December of that year, the Committee held
a pedestal fund art loan exhibition selling Bartholdi’s
autograph and displaying manuscripts from people like
Mark Twain and Emma Lazarus. As efforts like these
continued to fail in America, Bartholdi continued
to work diligently on the creation of Lady Liberty in
France.
In 1884, Bartholdi finished constructing the Statue
of Liberty. He wrote, “Let us hope that when you receive
this news from France, the patriotic spirit of America
will awaken, and that funds will be coming in.”118 Yet,
even after Americans watched the first bricks appear on
Bedloe’s Island, they remained uninspired. By October
of 1884, the Committee had only two thousand dollars
left. The North American described how, “During the
past six years every effort has been made to induce New
Yorkers to contribute the amount needed, and every
effort has failed.”119 The article talked about the pres-
sure now rising to appease the “liberal people of France
who tendered this Statue of Liberty as a token of their
good will toward…the United States,” and how bad it
would look for “our national courtesy” if America failed
to raise the needed money. The article threatened that
the French might rescind the gift and “put it to their
own uses” if the money is not raised soon. It declared
that “the Republicans of France have offered” it “as an
expression of their friendliness.” This vague interpreta-
tion of the Statue reflects the desperation for funds.120
Anxiety would truly set in the next year though, when
a congressional appropriation bill for $100,000 did
not pass.121 On March 13th, 1885 the newspaper pu-
blisher Joseph Pulitzer wrote that the, “Committee
acknowledges its inability to proceed.”122
American newspapers would ultimately save the
Statue of Liberty by adopting new rhetoric surrounding
the Statue and framing it as a patriotic project. Joseph
Pulitzer usually receives all of the credit for this effort
and he certainly made a huge impact. Pulitzer step-
ped in when the Committee needed $100,000 in the
spring of 1885.123 After fighting for the Union army, he
had married into a wealthy family. His wealth only in-
creased after he bought the St Louis Post Dispatch and
the World from Jay Gould.124 Pulitzer had been suppor-
tive of the Statue since 1883 when he wrote an editorial
saying, “The statue, the noble fight of our young sister
republic, is ready for us. And here, in the commercial
metropolis…where hundreds of our citizens reckon
their wealthy by millions…we stand haggling and beg-
ging…to procure a pedestal…New York ought to blush
at this humiliating spectacle…As the rich citizens of
New York have shown such apathy in this matter, let
the poorer classes move.”125 He began raising money in
earnest though in 1885. When he reported donations,
he credited young office boys, working girls, struggling
artists, recent immigrants, school children, and the el-
derly. He published the letters of donors such as a young
child named Norm Allen who wrote, “I am a little boy.
Would like to help you more. I send you my first gold
dollar for the Bartholdi Fund.”126 With both his early
and later articles, Pulitzer attempted to turn the Statue
into not only a matter of patriotism but also a matter of
class pride.
Pulitzer also perpetuated the centennial unders-
tanding of the Statue and its vaguer understandings.
In 1885 he wrote, “Money must be raised to complete
the pedestal…a gift emblematic of our attainment of
the first century of independence…We must raise mo-
ney!”127 On March 23, 1885 he wrote, “We ask you in the
name of glorious memories, in the name of our country,
the name of civilization and of art,” to donate.128 Pu-
litzer had great success, raising two thousand dollars in
his first week and twenty-five thousand dollars in his
first month. He ran editorials every day for sixth mon-
ths until he raised his goal of $100,000. Today, a statue
of Pulitzer stands on Liberty Island in gratitude for his
help.129 If it had not been for his persistence and the
extensive range of meanings he attributed to the Statue
of Liberty, the Statue would almost certainly not stand
on Liberty Island today.
Pulitzer usually receives all of the credit for saving
Bartholdi’s project but many other newspapers fought
for its success. Solicitations for money for the Statue
often appeared in the advertisement section of news-
papers from across the nation. In 1884, the Milwaukee

Daily Sentinel advertised the Statue, using its Centen-
nial interpretation. It described the Statue as a “Memo-
rial of the ancient and continued good will of the great
nation which so materially aided us in our struggle for
freedom,” and then asked readers to donate money to
power the electricity of the Statue’s torch. The article
explicitly chose to “appeal to…patriotic citizens,” and
said that the project, “ought not to be stopped by the
indifference or apathy of the people.” It declared confi-
dence in the project’s success because “the object of this
international sentient of friendship and love of liber-
ty,” aligned with the values of Americans. This appeal
reeked of desperation as the author admitted that, “The
funds of the committee are nearly exhausted; the world
must stop within thirty days unless public spirit and pa-
triotism is widely aroused to finish it. Indifference to it
is tantamount to national ingratitude and humiliation.”
The article implicated all Americans and tried to turn
the Statue’s funding into a nationalistic project.
This article also served as one of the first to project a
sectional reconciliation meaning upon the Statue of Li-
berty. It went on to say, “Hitherto it [the Statue] has been
misrepresented and misunderstood. It is in no way a
private enterprise for personal or sectional glorification;
it is the gift of the people of France to the people of the
United Stated as a recognition of the blessings of liber-
ty…It is fitting that its pedestal should be constructed
by the contributions of many and not of few. No North,
no South, no East, no West, but throughout the glorious
land.”130 The author seems to draw directly from Colo-
nel Baxter’s 1877 speech, in which he praised reconci-
liation and overlooked the atrocities African Americans
continued to face. Instead of remembering the Statue
as a celebration of emancipation, people began to focus
on it as a symbol of American peace and reunion. Si-
milar language resounded during the laying of the Sta-
tue of Liberty’s first bricks on Bedloe’s that same year.
A minister pronounced that the Statue celebrated how,
“The American government never suspended the reign
of law. It never resorted to prosecutive measures and
after the conclusion of the great struggle, it entrusted
to liberty the task of healing the wounds caused by the
war.”131 Many would follow his example by celebrating
reconciliation and villainizing the Radical Republicans,
rather than recognizing those who currently stripped
African Americans of their liberty.
The Statue of Liberty also appeared on newspaper
advertisement pages across the country. In 1884, the
Southwestern Christian Advocate advertised the “co-
lossal statue” on a page filled with ads for Easter cards
and Sunday school.132 This paper and many others sold
one-dollar miniature statues to raise funds. The adver-
tisements read, “This attractive souvenir and Mantel or
desk ornament is a perfect facsimile” and also offered a
larger model for five dollars.
11
“Multiple Classified Advertisements,” Southwestern
Christian Advocate, February 28, 1884.
YALE HISTORICAL REVIEW

The Congregationalist asked for as little as “sums of
one dollar” to meet the need and the Rocky Mountain
News “respectfully” asked “that one of you will furnish
the money to effect this or that two of your or three
of you or five of you.” These newspapers, which helped
Pulitzer in the fight to raise funds, continued the nar-
rative that Bartholdi and Laboulaye had begun at the
Centennial.133,134 Their articles advertised the Statue
as a celebration of the American revolution and of the
French collaboration that ensured the United States’
victory. For example, the Idaho Avalanche told its rea-
ders in 1885 that they should donate because “our form
of government and the freedom…we owe in part to
the French aid and moral assistance during the seven
bloody years of the Revolution.”135 Even in the House
of Representatives, Congress discussed the project in
1885 as one which “celebrated in the United States” the
“hundredth anniversary of national independence.”136
On June 18th, 1886 the committee on foreign affairs re-
ported that funds should be provided for the inaugura-
tion, because the event commemorated “the centenary
of our independence as a nation.”137 Those attempting
to raise funds led the charge in changing the meaning
of the Statue of Liberty but the government and the ge-
neral public quickly followed.
Though the rest of the American public eventual-
ly accepted its new narratives, the irony of the Statue
was certainly not lost on continually oppressed Afri-
can Americans. African American newspapers ran far
fewer advertisements for the Statue’s pedestal, refusing
to support a symbol of liberty when they could not at-
tain that ideal. The New York Freeman for example ran
no advertisements concerning the pedestal no matter
how desperate the American Committee became.138
The Liberator spoke out adamantly against the Statue in
1883 writing, “The papers inform us that the statue of
Liberty…now stands upon that structure completed…
precisely because it is desirable that freedom should
pervade this entire nation…it is undesirable, and of
ill omen, that we should continue to make a parade of
the name before coming into possession of the thing.”
The article deemed the celebration of liberty in Ame-
rica premature and spoke of America’s history writing,
“One of the chief features of the American people – so
prominent as to make us, deservedly, the laughing stock
of other nations- has been a habit of boasting of our
country as ‘the land of the free,” while it should have
been called, “preeminently the land of the slave.” While
others rejoiced about sectional reconciliation this ar-
ticle declared, “We expect slavery will die. But powerful
parties, aided by powerful circumstances, are laboring
to restore and confirm it.”139 It went on to powerfully
beg, “What we wish is that this nation might have pos-
sessed moral and spiritual insight enough to recognize
its present state, and virtue enough to refrain from ma-
king new boasts on the score of freedom, until freedom
is officially proclaimed throughout the land unto all in-
habitants.” The author wanted the statue of Liberty to
“remain unfinished until our transition state shall be
over, until the last remnant of slavery shall be dead and
buried,” because “An incomplete statue of Liberty accu-
rately represents our present state.” This article encap-
sulates the danger of the changing rhetoric surrounding
the Statue because it demonstrates that Americans’ ce-
lebration of liberty required actively turning a blind eye
to the continued inequity African Americans faced.140
The Liberator called out Americans for funding a di-
shonest symbol, using a fabricated national myth.
The narrative of patriotism and reconciliation ul-
timately won and the American Committee finally
raised enough funds in 1886. On May 11th of that year,
Grover Cleveland officially “authorized and directed to
accept the colossal statue,” and promised that it would
“be inaugurated with such ceremonies as will serve to
testify the gratitude of our people,” to “the great nation
which aided us in our struggle for freedom.”141 When
Cleveland wrote these words he believed that the he
had approved a Statue which celebrated the American
Revolution. Joseph W. Drexel, a member of the Ameri-
can Committee, had written to Cleveland on April 27th
explaining the origins of the Statue: “You will doubtless
remember that during the year 1875, when the people
of the United States were making preparations for the
celebration…of the hundredth anniversary of their
national independence, the people of the Republic of
France desired to give some token of their sympathy in
the occasion.”142 Cleveland, convinced of this narrative
and assured that newspapers had already raised most
of the necessary funds, encouraged an elaborate inau-
guration. Thus, Congress, which had vetoed several
attempts to raise money for the pedestal, spared no ex-
pense for the dedication; the estimated cost surpassed
$106,000.143 This quick turnaround in the government’s
opinion did not go unnoticed. The New York Tribune
wrote that the dedication would take place “despite the
indifference,” that the “Congress and the Administra-

tion,” had shown prior.144 By the time crowds arrived
to the Statue’s grand inauguration, the government and
American Committee had completely commandeered
the Statue’s narrative.
People traveled in “from all sections of the country”
to attend the Statue’s dedication.145 When the day ar-
rived, it rained continuously but the spirit of the au-
dience remained uplifted.146 The order of affairs during
Inauguration day made much more sense for a natio-
nalistic celebration of the American Revolution, rather
than a day in memory of the bloody Civil War that had
divided the nation. For example, the agenda included
a “grand military parade,” in which “all the states and
territories…shall be represented.” The parade included
members from across the United States, a reminder of
the nation’s new unity.147 The Committee invited a nu-
mber of soldiers and veterans to join the celebration,
along with the French delegation.148 One paper descri-
bed how, “a general holiday appearance is presented by
the moving bodies of soldiers militia, civic organiza-
tions, and by the collection on the sidewalks of great
crowds of people.”149 After the military parade, soldiers
marched to the Battery, ships of war sailed to Bedloe’s
Island, and the people of America gave a national sa-
lute.150 Soldiers and civilians alike had to apply to be
part of the parade, an exclusive event that consciously
portrayed a singular story of American reunion and pa-
triotism.151
The ceremony also reinforced the Centennial un-
derstandingoftheStatueofLiberty.Thosecamewatched
“French and American flags…flying from house-tops
and windows in every direction.” 152 The day served as
a celebration of America’s friendship to France that ori-
ginated during the American Revolution. In fact, even
the invitations for the inauguration emphasized the
alliance of America and France. It included the inter-
secting crests of both nations, making no reference to
emancipation or the chains that remained by the Sta-
tue’s feet.153 More than the decorations or the agenda
though, the speeches given on dedication day shaped
the audiences’ understanding of the Statue of Liberty.
The government and the American Committee
13
The invitation for the Statue of Liberty dedication. Inauguration of the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the
World (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887), 2.
YALE HISTORICAL REVIEW

purposefully chose who spoke during the ceremony.
One important figure who never received the chance to
speak at the dedication included Bartholdi, the archi-
tect of the masterpiece himself. The Cleveland Gazette,
an African American newspaper, served as one of many
newspapers which pointed out that “there were loud
cries for Bartholdi” to talk during the ceremony and the
audience “insisted upon a speech from the sculptor.”
And yet, after Bartholdi “bowed and waved his hat,”
General Schofield “abruptly cried out ‘Mr. Bartholdi
has nothing to say.’”154 One cannot help but consider
what the audience would have heard if the Committee
had given Bartholdi the chance to speak up. There is
no evidence that he would have corrected the historical
memory of his Statue but the chance remains.
Samuel Miller Hagerman, a poet, also found him-
self silenced on the day of the dedication. He had
prepared a poem for the inaugural ceremony and the
American Committee admitted that, “the literary me-
rits of the poem have been gratifyingly confirmed by
three of America’s greatest poets.” And yet they went
on, “It has been a source of the deepest regret that in
the view of the…extreme length of the programme,”
they claimed they had no choice but to “omit it from
the programme.”155 In Hagerman’s poem “Liberty,” he
opens by describing the Statues “Bursting her fetters,”
immediately drawing attention to the chains on her feet
that so many overlooked.156 He spoke openly about
the Statue’s original intent to symbolize and celebrate
emancipation writing, “Thou art as one from out the
heavens, whom God himself hath sent, to seal forever
Slavery’s tomb as Freedom’s monument.” 157 After so
many had claimed the Statue for their own purposes, he
returned agency to the monument, including a section
of the poem where Lady Liberty herself speaks and de-
clares, “Shut up within the darkened soul, there yearned
since time began the light of that immortal truth – the
liberty of man; through the long, tortuous labyrinth of
ignorance and doubt, the slow procession of the past
is winding dimly out.”158 The poem acknowledges the
long arduous process it took to end slavery and more
importantly, that the process had not completely ended.
She continues,
Freedom for men to use their powers by right of
Nature’s rules, the laws that hold the world in leash,
the laws that set men free; for, save through knowledge
of her laws, there is no liberty. Freedom for every li-
ving man, that stands upon the early, for all that can
he black or white belongs to him by birth…Freedom
from party prejudice from threat of craft…freedom
for every man to vote, for every man to build, every
man to own himself, to act his manhood out.159
Hagerman acknowledges many truths in his poem
that others left out. He explicitly mentions that slave-
ry ran across the lines of race. He acknowledges that
save for certain laws, many would still own slaves. He
calls attention to the party prejudice that persisted and
the ways in which black suffrage had come under the
“threat of craft.” Given these controversial, powerful
lines, it should not come as a surprise that Hagerman’s
poem did not make it on the dedication’s agenda.
It is equally important to examine who did receive
the chance to speak and what they took the opportunity
to say. The French diplomat Ferdinand De Lesseps be-
gan by exclaiming, “Great beacon rising from the waves
at the threshold of free America…you have achieved
the progress of your hundred years.” With that simple
sentence he proclaimed the fight for equality over. He
went on to discuss how the French “crossed the Atlan-
tic a century ago” to help bring about independence,
buying into the narrative that the Statue had always
been meant for the Centennial.160 Senator Evarts spoke
next, presenting the Statue in the name of the American
Committee. Evarts mentioned the “the conflict which
agitated and divided the people,” vaguely referring
to the Civil War. He spoke of how “the liberty loving
people of France felt an intense and solicitous interest,”
without admitting that most of the French supported
the Confederacy. He then celebrated how the Govern-
ment, “made all its people equal and free,” denying the
current reality for African Americans. Despite the revi-
sionist history and reconciliation language, his speech
perhaps served as one of the best chances for people to
learn that the Statue related to the Civil War. And yet,
most of the audience did not even hear him because,
as several newspapers reported, the rain and tugboat
whistles drowned him out.161,162 After he spoke, the
Committee unveiled the Statue’s face, sacrificing Lady
Liberty to the masses without a proper introduction.
When the French flag fell, revealing the Statue, one re-
porter recorded that “A hundred fourths of July broke
loose,” further emphasizing that Lady Liberty would
always remain misunderstood.163
President Cleveland, despite continuously vetoing

funds for the Statue, received the opportunity to speak
next. He clarified that, “We are not here today to bow be-
fore the representation of a fierce and warlike god, willed
with wrath and vengeance, but we joyously contemplate
instead our own deity keeping watch and ward before
the open gates of America…Instead of grasping in her
hand thunderbolts of terror and of death, she holds aloft
the light which illuminates the way to man’s enfranchi-
sement.”164 He seemed to address and reject Bartholdi’s
original, more violent designs and ideas. He wanted to
ensure that people did not react to the embodiment of
liberty by fighting for true freedom. Instead, he wanted
the audience to believe that all Americans had already
attainted liberty and that the monument now served to
help the rest of the world. Cleveland’s speech remained
vague and he did not allude to the American Revolu-
tion or the Civil War, instead promoting a general in-
terpretation of patriotism. A Lefaivre spoke next, in
accord with Cleveland. He too declared that America
had reached the “achievement of liberty,” and said, “the
Republics of the past were debased by hostility toward
foreigners by arbitrary and brutal power, and by slave-
ry.”165 He acted as if America had overcome all forms of
enslavement even though economic and fear tactics had
created new cycles of debt and entrapment for African
Americans. He then went on to tell a long story about
Lafayette’s role in the American Revolution, spending
the majority of the speech propagating the Centennial
understanding of the statue.166 Again, neither of these
speakers alluded to Laboulaye’s original intentions with
Lady Liberty.
General Schofield served as the last opportunity
to remind people of the Statue’s original meaning. He
too spoke of the American Revolution, the downfall of
“dynastic purposes,” and the “Declaration of Indepen-
dence.” Yet, before he did, he began by alluding to slave-
ry and emancipation, discussing “Our great civil strife
with all its expenditure and blood,” and claimed that
“the development of liberty was impossible while she
was shackled to the slave.” It seemed as though he mi-
ght help the black man’s cause, until he began preaching
about sectional reconciliation and denying the inequa-
lity that persisted. He explained that bloodshed had
been, “a terrible sacrifice for freedom,” and even said,
“The results are so immeasurably great that by compa-
rison the cost is insignificant.” He talked of how the “re-
bel” had become a “patriotic citizen,” and claimed that
the “enfranchisement of the individual” had been achie-
ved. He said that all were “secure from fraud and the vo-
ter from intimidation…and education furnished by the
state for all liberty…and equal opportunity for honor
and fortune the problems of labor and capital of social
regeneration and moral growth of property and pover-
ty will work themselves out under the benign influence
of enlightened law making and law abiding liberty.”167
He, like many others, wanted Americans to believe that
all disparity had disappeared and that Reconstruction
had successfully come to a close. His use of the passive
voice, when he declared that the “problems…will work
themselves out,” reflects how the Republican Party took
a step back at this time and left African Americans to
fend for themselves.
This day of supposed inclusivity and liberty, served
only to emphasize the rampant inequality in America.
The American Committee promised that “all organi-
zations” could “make application” to join the inaugu-
ration but its ultimate makeup in no way reflected the
American public.168 “A multitude of people were as
varied in their classes as were the vessels,” in the har-
bor but those on Liberty Island itself constituted al-
most solely white men.169 The Committee told women
that they could not attend the dedication because they
would get hurt and in the end only two attended.170
Those who watched from the water did not enjoy the
ceremony nearly as much as those on the island. In fact,
they could hardly see those on the boat next to them
because of a heavy mist that day. For those who could
see, “Umbrellas obscured for the most part,” the faces of
those around them.171 To make matters worse, those on
the ships only “occasionally,” saw “glimpses of the colos-
sal statue.” Just as those in the harbor could not see the
Statue, they could not attain full liberty, and especially
full suffrage, by this moment.172 Despite what news-
papers reported about a beautiful, seamless ceremony,
feminist anarchists, socialist organizations, and ethnic
minorities arrived on boats to protest the inauguration,
a ceremony that in the end served only to highlight its
own hypocrisy.173
African American newspapers used coverage of
the ceremony as an opportunity to fight back against
the rhetoric of reconciliation that the audience heard.
By the 1880’s, when the Statue opened to the public,
African Americans still faced marginalization in public
places and at work.174 Thus, some African American
papers ignored the Statue’s dedication entirely. Others
in the black press debunked the romantic notions sur-

rounding the Statue and explained that it certainly did
not stand for their liberty.175,176 For example, the Cleve-
land Gazette wrote, “Shove the Bartholdi statue, torch
and all, into the ocean until the ‘liberty’ of this country
is such as to make it possible for an inoffensive and in-
dustrious colored man in the South to earn a respec-
table living for himself and his family, without being
ku-kluxed, perhaps murdered, his daughter and wife
outraged, and his property destroyed.”177 This newspa-
per expressed what all the white men on their podium
had attempted to cover up, that liberty did not exist yet
in America. The Cleveland Gazette also ran an editorial
titled, “Postponing Bartholdi’s statue until there is liber-
ty for colored as well.”178 These articles had many sen-
timents similar to those which The Liberator expressed
earlier. African Americans called out the Statue, which
had the intentions of celebrating emancipation, for ce-
lebrating liberation prematurely.
W.E.B. Du Bois served as another prominent voice
that rejected the Statue as a symbol of his liberty. In his
autobiography, he described seeing the statue when he
got back from Europe writing, “After a week we began
to become tired and uneasy…At last it loomed on the
morning when we saw the Statue of Liberty. I know not
what multitude of emotions surged in the others, but I
had to recall that mischievous little French girl whose
eyes twinkled as she said, ‘Oh yes the Statue of Liber-
ty! With its back toward America, and its face toward
France.’”179 After these few sentences, he ends his chap-
ter and does not refer to the Statue again. This short
excerpt and the little girl’s quote that he includes elu-
cidates how many felt about the Statue of Liberty. By
accepting a definition of reconciliation and patriotism,
it had turned its back on the many Americans who still
needed it. The Statue may have been meant to enlighten
the world but it first needed to enlighten the people of
America, where racism and discrimination persisted.
Bartholdi could never correct the narrative that had
so overwhelmingly fallen from his grip, especially be-
cause the Statue always needed more funding. As late
as 1894, Congress passed an Act for the Statue’s mainte-
nance, amounting to $64,000.180 That year, the Boston
Investigator reported that “American are beginning to
find…that France has made them a burdensome gift
in sending Bartholdi’s famous statue,” and that “Inves-
tigators claim that there are already alarming signs of
dissolution in the statue.”181 In 1887, the Atchison Daily
Champion wrote that “Bartholdi’s work has lost its
freshness for all but a few strangers and enthusiasts.”182
The Statue would always need the American public on
its side if it hoped to receive the funds it needed. It is no
surprise then that meaning would change once again
as immigration increased at the end of the nineteenth
century.
Americans only started to understand the Statue of
Liberty as a symbol associated with immigration after
the addition of the “New Colossus” and the construc-
tion of Ellis Island. Emma Lazarus wrote the “New Co-
lossus” in 1883 for a fundraiser for the pedestal, yet ano-
ther ploy to fund the project. The poem began, “Give
me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses year-
ning to breathe free.”183 Lazarus, a wealth Manhattanite,
had made Jewish refugees her newest cause and there-
fore wrote a poem in the hope of America’s acceptance
of them. Though many think of the Statue and poem
as intertwined today, the public did not read her poem
until 1903 when Lazarus’ friends convinced officials to
engrave it on a plaque within the Statue’s pedestal.184
Those who arrived to America increasingly understood
the Statue and its poem as a sign that the United States,
the land of the free, accepted all refugees. The construc-
tion of Ellis Island, completed in 1892, two minutes
away from the Statue of Liberty, only strengthened the
perceived connection between immigration and the
Statue. The Statue’s new status as the welcome sign to
America for immigrants was as ironic as its role as a
sign of liberty for all.
While Americans congratulated themselves and
praised the Statue, xenophobia and violence towards
immigrants rose quickly at the end of the twentieth
century.185
The Statue of Liberty would remain a hypocritical
reminder of the disparity and perceived equality in the
United States to many of its viewers into the twentieth
century. In fact, Puck Magazine published an image of
the Statue of Liberty on fire in 1908 to reflect the horrors
that African Americans continued to experience.186 In
1883 the Liberator wrote, “When the war for freedom
shall have closed in victory, then will be the proper time
to rear the statue of Liberty as our national emblem.”187
Has the war come to a close yet? Many, including those
writing for the 1619 Project would certainly say no. In
an ongoing New York Times Magazine initiative, Nikole
Hannah-Jones argues that that many contemporary
American institutions continue to propagate the legacy
of slavery.188 Thus, to this day, many view the Statue of

Liberty as a representation of the “highest ideals and
deepest ironies of our history.”189 It has been called a
“wonder of the world,” but also a “disgrace.”190 It has
been commandeered as a way to celebrate uncontrover-
sial memories when others have been too divisive.
The message of the Statue of Liberty, America’s great
triumph over its original sin of slavery, was lost in the
economic and fundraising imperatives of the day. And
yet, if one looks closely, Lady Liberty still stands mid
step. Her robe flows, her knee bends, and back heel
points up off the ground.191 America has often fallen far
short of her ideals, but Lady Liberty’s potential remains
unbound.
1 Robert Belot and Baiel Bermond, Bartholdi (Paris: Perrin,
2004), 246.
2 Vermont Watchman, October 3, 1883.
3 Leslie Allen, Liberty: The Statue and the American Dream (New
York: Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation, 1985), 30.
4 Albert Boime, Hollow Icons: The Politics of Sculpture in 19th
Century France (Kent: Kent State University Press, 1987),
113.
5 Willadene Price, Bartholdi and the Statue of Liberty (Chicago:
Rand McNally & Company, 1959), 38.
6 The JBHE Foundation, “Making the Case for the African-Amer-
ican Origins of the Statue of Liberty,” The Journal of Blacks
in Higher Education, no 27 (Spring 2000): 66.
7 Julia Jacobs, “New Statue of Liberty Museum Illuminates a For-
gotten History,” New York Times, May 15, 2019.
8 Edward Berenson, The Statue of Liberty: A Transatlantic Story
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), 1.
9 “The Statue of Liberty in New York,” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated
Newspaper, October 18, 1884.
10 Emma Lazarus, Emma Lazarus: Selected Poems and Other
Writings (Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2002), 50.
11 Charles E. Mercer, Statue of Liberty (New York: Putnam, 1985),
38.
12 Yasmin Sabina Khan, Enlightening the World: The Creation of
the Statue of Liberty (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010),
5.
13 Zachary Schwartz, “The Statue of Liberty Was Originally
intended to Celebrate the End of American Slavery,” Vice,
September 14, 2016.
14 Price, Bartholdi and the Statue of Liberty, 37.
16 Berenson, The Statue of Liberty, 9.
17 Mabel Patterson, Through the Years with Famous Authors
(Good Press, 2019), 14.
18 Edouard Laboulaye, Why the North Cannot Accept of Separa-
tion (New York, Charles B. Richardson, 1863), 4.
19 Francesca Lidia Viano, Sentinel: The Unlikely Origins of the
State of Liberty (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
2018), 204.
20 Viano, Sentinel, 111.
23 Charles River Editors, The Statue of Liberty: The History and
Legacy of America’s Most Famous Statue, 2014, 68.
24 Laboulaye, Why the North Cannot Accept, 3.
25 Laboulaye, Why the North Cannot Accept,, 6-7.
26 Laboulaye, Why the North Cannot Accept,, 7.
27 Laboulaye, Why the North Cannot Accept,, 7.
29 Laboulaye, Why the North Cannot Accept, 7.
31 Jacobs, “New Statue of Liberty.”
34 “Abolition,” National Park Service, accessed March 18, 2020.
Image from Puck Magazine, September 9, 1908.
End Notes

38 Mary J. Shapiro, Gateway to Liberty: The Story of the Statue of
Liberty and Ellis Island (New York: Vintage Books, 1986), 12.
39 John Bigelow, Some Recollections of the Late Edouard Laboulaye
(New York, 1888), 10.
40 Bigelow, Some Recollections, 2.
ican Origins of the Statue of Liberty,” 66.
48 Charles River Editors, The Statue of Liberty, 66.
51 Gillian Brockell, “The Statue of Liberty was Created to Celebrate
Freed Slaves, not Immigrants, its New Museum Recounts,”
The Washington Post, May 23rd, 2019.
52 Price, Bartholdi and The Statue of Liberty, 38.
54 Michael Clodfelter, Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical
Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures. 1492-2015 (Jef-
ferson: McFarland, 2017), 187.
55 Jean-Mari Schmitt, Bartholdi: A Certain Idea of Liberty (Stras-
bourg: Nuée Bleue, 1985), 43-44.
61 Jacqueline Banerjee, “The Spirit of Freedom,” The Victorian
Web.
ican Origins of the Statue of Liberty, 65.
66 Lindsay Turley, “Myths Surrounding the Origin of the Statue of
Liberty,” Museum of the City of New York, January 28, 2014.
67 Mercer, Statue of Liberty, 36.
68 “Abolition,” Breminate, April 18, 2019.
69 Jachos, "New Statue of Liberty."
70 Franz Kafka, Amerika (Munich: K, Wolff, 1927) in Adam Kirsch,
“America, ‘Amerika,’” New York Times, January 2, 2009.
72 Jacbos, “New Statue of Liberty.”
76 David W. Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American
Memory (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003), 6.
77 Blight, Race and Reunion, 6.
78 Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution
(New York: Harper & Row, 1988), 570.
79 Foner, Reconstruction, 587.
80 William Eaton to David S. Reid, September 20, 1875, David S.
Reid Papers, NCDAH in Foner, Reconstruction, 591.
83 Frank Barbour Coffin, “The Negro’s America,” Poems (Alexan-
dria: Chadwyck-Healy Inc., 1994), 128.
92 Bartholdi to Laboulaye, April 30, 1872 in Shapiro, Gateway to
Liberty, 14.
93 Allen, Liberty, 25.
97 “The Statue of Liberty,” Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, September
29, 1876.
100 “France Gives the Statue of Liberty to the United States,” Histo-
ry, accessed April 2, 2020.
105 “The Statue of Liberty,” Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, September
29, 1876.
106 “The Bartholdi Statue of Liberty,” Boston Daily Advertiser, De-
cember 29, 1881.
107 “The Statue of Liberty,” Daily Evening Bulletin, December 7,
1882.
108 “Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World Has Ar-
rived in the Harbor of New York, Liberty,” St. Louis Globe
Democrat, May 19, 1883.
109 “Multiple Classified Advertisements,” Southwestern Christian
Advocate, February 28th, 1884.
110 Megan Margino, “The Arm that Clutched the Torch: The Stat-
ue of Liberty’s Campaign for a Pedestal,” New York Public Li-
brary, April 7, 2015.
112 “The Statue of Liberty,” Daily Evening Bulletin, December 7,
1882.
113 The American Committee of the Statue of Liberty, An Appeal to
the People of the United States in Behalf of the Great Statue in
Mercer, Statue of Liberty, 36.
116 Arkansas Gazette, November 20, 1883.
117 The Grit, July 12, 1884.

119 “The Statue of Liberty,” North American, January 11, 1884.
120 Ibid.
125 The World, May 14, 1883 in Mercer, Statue of Liberty 39.
130 “The Statue of Liberty,” Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, August 30,
1884.
131 Ibid.
132 “Multiple Classified Advertisements,” Southwestern Christian
Advocate, February 28, 1884.
133 Rocky Mountain News, March 9, 1886.
134 The Congregationalist, May 7, 1885.
135 “The Bartholdi Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World,” July
4, 1885.
136 “Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World,” Committed on
Foreign Affairs Discharged and Referred to the Committee
on Appropriations, June 18, 1886.
137 Ibid.
138 John Bodnar, Laura Burt, Jennifer Stinson, and Barbara Trues-
dell, “The Changing Face of the Statue of Liberty,” Center for
the Study of History and Memory, Indiana University, De-
cember 2005, 176.
139 “Shadow without Substance,” Liberator, December 11, 1883.
140 Ibid.
141 “Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World,” Message from the
President of the United States, Relating to the Acceptance
and Inauguration of the Colossal Statue of Liberty Enlight-
ening the World, May 12, 1886.
142 Ibid.
143 Letter from Acting Secretary Treasury with Estimate from Secre-
tary of State of Expense of Inaugurating the Statue of Liberty,
United States Congress, May 29, 1886.
144 New York Tribune, October 8, 1886.
145 “The Statue of Liberty,” Rocky Mountain News, October 29,
1886.
146 “Unveiling the Statue of Liberty,” Idaho Avalanche, November
20, 1886.
147 Charles P. Stone, The Rocky Mountain News, October 18, 1886.
148 St. Louis Globe Democrat, October 26, 1886.
149 Stone, The Rocky Mountain News.
150 Inauguration of the State of Liberty Enlightening the World by
the President of the United States (New York: Appleton and
Company, 1887), 12.
151 Inauguration of the State of Liberty, 13.
152 Stone, The Rocky Mountain News.
154 “Enlightening the World,” Cleveland Gazette, October 30,
1886.
155 The Office of American Committee of Statue of Liberty, No-
vember 6, 1886 in Samuel Miller Hagerman, Liberty as Deliv-
ered by the Goddess at her Unveiling in the Harbor of New York
(Brooklyn: Published by the Author, 1886), 5.
156 Hagerman, Liberty as Delivered by the Goddess, 9.
157 Hagerman, Liberty as Delivered by the Goddess, 14.
158 Hagerman, Liberty as Delivered by the Goddess, 15-17.
159 Hagerman, Liberty as Delivered by the Goddess, 21-22.
20, 1886.
167 Unveiling the Statue of Liberty,” Idaho Avalanche, November
20, 1886.
168 Stone, The Rocky Mountain News, October 18, 1886.
20, 1886.
20, 1886.
20, 1886.
175 “Abolition,” National Park Service.
176 Bodnar, The Changing Face, 176.
177 Jacobs, “New Statue of Liberty Museum.”
178 Andrew Serratore, “The Americans who saw Lady Liberty as
a False Idol of Broken Promises,” Smithsonian, May 28, 2019.
179 William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, The Autobiography of
W.E.B. Du Bois: A Soliloquoy on Viewing My Life from the
Last Decade of its First Century (Oxford: Oxford university
Press, 2007), 114.
180 “Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World,” Letter from the
Acting Secretary of the Treasury Relative to Using the Statue
of Liberty Enlightening the World as a Beacon, February 14,
1894.
181 “The Statue of Liberty,” Boston Investigator, June 2, 1894.
182 “Statue of Liberty,” Atchison Daily Champion, October 23,
1887.
183 “Lady Liberty and Immigration,” The City of Reliquary Muse-
um and Civic Organization, accessed April 16, 2020.
184 Robin Jacobson, “Welcoming Refugees: How the Statue of Lib-
erty Became the ‘Mother of Exiles,’” Congregation Beth El.
185 Catherine Rampell, “America has Always been Hostiles to Im-
migrants,” Washington Post, August 27, 2015.
186 “Abolition,” National Park Service.
187 “Shadow without Substance,” Liberator, December 11, 1883.
188 Nikole Hannah-Jones, “Our Democracy’s Founding Ideals
Were False When They Were Written,” New York Times Mag-
azine, August 14, 2019.
189 Jacobs, “New Statue of Liberty Museum.”
190 Wisconsin Labor Advocate, November 5, 1886.

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